Hello and welcome to one of two national finals that weren’t actually national finals at first. Coincidentally, both of them still feature a live orchestra. Yes, it’s Albania time.
The show opened with the performance of the first ever song that won FiK, which was actually cool, then a little bit of talking and we moved to the songs. Woohoo, very little time wasting
Goddamn, the orchestra adds so much to these performances. In general, this brings all the drama I expect from Albania with some rocky vibes, but I don’t really like the football chant chorus, it really ruins my immersion. Still, this is a good effort.
The backing vocalists elevate this and add a very epic feel. I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed it as much without live vocals and music, as it’s still rather plain.
Oh my god, this is so chill and cute. While it could use some more progression, I could definitely listen to this regularly - this is one of those songs that definitely gets the vibes right. Though I’m really not a fan of the interpretive ball dancer and her purple/green outfit, and her performance was a little flat, I still like it - especially the piano at the end.
On the other hand, this is just very banal. I really can’t say I like this, though I definitely don’t hate it either. It’s just there and heavily carried by the orchestra (which won’t be in Basel).
Some might call it pity bait (because he’s in a wheelchair), but I’d disagree. He doesn’t feel helpless or feeble at all, so I don’t feel any pity for him, only respect. The song is very lovely too: it’s a very gentle and flowing ballad, and he performs it really well, especially thanks to his expressive face. I really liked this one, though it’s once again heavily elevated by the orchestra (especially those amazing strings).
While I’m not a fan of her outfit, I really like the song itself. It’s a dark and brooding rock ballad with another very expressive performer. Of course, if this wins FiK, RTSH will neuter its instrumental and translate it to English, just like they’ve done so many times before. Still, I’m really enjoying it in the moment: it builds up very effectively and manages to stand on its own even without the orchestra (but live music still helps a lot).
On some occasions, minimalistic verses and an epic chorus can work. This is one of those occasions. I don’t know why, but I really like how it manages to bring the verses with nothing but a piano and a beat into an epic orchestral chorus, simply with him escalating his vocals and the drummer going wild on the drums. It’s really well-made, and he’s a great singer. But I don’t think it would make much sense outside of the context of FiK because it’s still very typical for what it is and doesn’t bring anything new to the contest.
Now this comes off as desperate. His performance is very over-the-top, making the whole thing feel disjointed, which is a huge shame as the instrumental here is fire. Maybe toning down the drama would benefit this a lot, but I didn’t really like the live performance, which is a shame as I found the studio version to be really nice.
This is a rock song, so I should obviously like it, right? Well, not so much, no. I mean, the instrumental is really good here, the song keeps building and building and has a satisfying payoff at the end during the instrumental break, but the vocal performance is quite unconvincing, it’s like he’s straining himself too much. I would’ve preferred if he was just a little bit more relaxed.
This is one of those songs that isn’t bad at all, but isn’t any good either. It’s just ok, she’s a little flat, the instrumental is a little boring, but it isn’t unpleasant overall. But I wouldn’t be able to recall a single bar of this song at this point and I’m very unlikely to revisit it at any point in my life.
And now, it’s time for a bossa nova-ish sound for a complete change of pace. It’s bouncy and fun, the performer is very charismatic and manages to shine through the screen, the orchestra played their ass off for this and made it even better. My only complaint would be that her singing was a bit off, but not majorly, there’s nothing some vocal coaching can’t fix here. I think it could be some nerves too.
On the other hand, this fell a bit flat compared to the studio version. He just failed to sell it to me, but I really enjoyed the staging with the identical nuns. However, I lost my interest by the end, so I can’t rank it high despite the good elements in it.
An eclectic mixture of electronica, folk and pop? Hell yeah, sign me right up! This was so good and completely different from everything in the competition. It’s very mesmerising and has a very addictive and hypnotic sort of performance. There’s so much potential for this at ESC, and I really hope it gets chosen. It immediately impressed me in the studio, and I was worried about the live performance. Thankfully, everything went right, and she delivered a flawless vocal performance and filled the whole stage with her presence. And the deadpan delivery by the other guy on stage also works really well to switch things up for a bit.
First of all, wow, what a horrible outfit. It immediately gave me a negative first impression. Luckily, the song is truly lovely. It’s a bit of a Disneyish ballad with a lovely build-up all throughout. It’s very charming and certainly deserves to be in the competition. I really wouldn’t mind seeing this in Eurovision, though this isn’t my absolute favourite.
Well, an upbeat song like this certainly fits at the end to wake everyone up. Granted, this isn’t my cup of tea - it feels a little too amateurish for me to truly embrace, but it’s still entertaining enough, I suppose. And he’s a likeable performer, which helps.
A lot of people find this boring, but I absolutely disagree. I think it’s really wonderful. And I’m sure the next semi-final will be even more wonderful.
There isn’t much to say, so let’s dive into the songs.
Nice, he got some vocal coaching and actually sounds good. Gneerally, this sounds considerably better than his previous entry. Still, he has this sort of gritty singing style I don’t really like. It’s just sort of vaguely off-putting. And that outfit is quite ugly as well, I hope he doesn’t keep it if he actually does win.
It’s quite a lowkey sort of song, not very flashy, but very pretty. Unfortunately, I’m not a huge fan of her vocals, which have a lot of vibrato. And that’s definitely a stylistic choice because she gave a very strong vocal performance.
He’s selling the hell out of it and, honestly, I’m kinda buying. He has a very enjoyable and likeable performance, the instrumental has a cute summery vibe with a Spanish-sounding guitar. It’s just quite cute, but rather uncompetitive.
We get a very typical Albanian-sounding power ballad opening that switches into something more poppy for the chorus. It tries to be energetic and engaging, but kinda ends up feeling aimless. Plus, the melody in the chorus is way too repetitive. Still, the live orchestra still elevated this. I think it could’ve benefitted from her moving more rather than standing on a pedestal hidden by a very long dress.
Video effects galore. Well, actually it’s just in black-and-white, so there aren’t that many effects. Still, it gives it a nice mysterious vibe that matches the song quite well. And it’s one of those songs that has strong verses that hook you in and hold your attention until the equally strong chorus, which really nicely continues the verses. Add to this a good vocal performance and live music and you have a very strong overall package.
I like the performance, she definitely has the right attitude to sell the song, but I’m not really sold on the song itself. It’s a little repetitive in the chorus, though it ensures that it gets stuck in your head. I still think there are more good things about it than bad though.
Meh? That’s pretty much all I can say about this. Like, it’s not actively bad, but it’s just rather dull and doesn’t provoke any reaction in me.
This is another safe song that doesn’t do much. It was sung and performed well, and the composition was nice, but it just lacked a certain je ne sais quoi to elevate it.
Ok, now here’s a proper symphonic rock banger. It’s very theatrical and epic, the singer is very intese, which really adds to the song and the arrangement is equally strong. It’s quite dissonant and hectic, but in a way that really works. I wish the vocals were mixed a bit louder, but mixing live music is a bit harder than just a prerecorded backing track, so I can forgive this.
In typical Eurovision duet fashion, these people have no chemistry together at all. It’s just comical how uncomfortable they look together. They don’t even have any harmonies - instead, they just try to sing over each other. I really didn’t like this.
This was very cute. Just a nice chill rock song sung by a very expressive performer. You can tell that the song means a lot to him because he really gets into it. Well done to him, I enjoyed it much more thanks to his performance.
I like this, it has a very cool cabaret-ish vibe to it and the performance is very stlyish. There was definitely a lot of thought behind this and I hope it gets rewarded, I’d love to see it in the final.
I’ll give her some credit: she’s a good performer. The song, on the other hand, is a huge mess. It’s extremely disjointed and chaotic and not in a good way. But you all know that I simply don’t like girlbops, so maybe it’s just because this has no appeal to me. I also don’t like the random Spanish words, they add nothing to the song.
This is surprisingly unenjoyable. He has a very lazy vocal performance, with no effort put into them. This ends up completely putting me off, it’s like he’s bored on stage. The composition is nothing to write home about either. There’s some kind of potential here, but it isn’t shining through at all.
His voice works so well for a rock ballad like this. It doesn’t do anything we haven’t heard before, but it does what it does pretty well. Well, in the verses, at least, they have a nice sense of build-up, but the chorus completely wastes it, which is a huge letdown.
This wasn’t as good as the previous semi-final. I’ll skip the cover night on Saturday and jump right back into this on Sunday for the final.
Well, he had a much better start this time around, but the chorus brought back a lot of very unnecessary drama with high notes he really can’t pull off, so he ended up having multiple voice cracks. This is definitely a rough start to the show. But I think the vision shined through from time to time. And it’s generally a very strong
Her performance in the semi was already really good, but she managed to improve on it even more. I really like the dark and sultry Bond sort of vibe this rock ballad has to offer. Even though it’s a bit too “standard” to shine at Eurovision, I still think this is one of the strongest songs in this lineup. And the orchestra makes it even more enjoyable. It also has a great outro that winds down the drama in a very natural way, thanks to there not being any length limit.
I still don’t like how repetitive the chorus here feels. Listening to it just tires me out, it’s one of those songs that feel way longer than they actually are. And the piano plinking just doesn’t sound right either.
This is exactly what the adjective “dreary” was intended for. It was somehow even worse than in the semi, and he was actively boring me to tears. I have no idea what the juries were smoking when they qualified this over so many good entries.
I still find this a little bit boring, but I like it much better now. I just think the instrumental has more of a pop to it than in the semi, but his performance is very unengaging, which is the biggest crime a rock song can commit (spoilers for my 2012 review). As a result, it just ends up falling a little flat, which is a shame because I really hoped it would get better. And the breakdown part is great too - the orchestra did great with it.
Wow, this is still unbelievably uninteresting. There’s very little creativity here - it’s a total nothing-burger. And the worst thing about this is that it isn’t actively bad, so I can’t hate on it: it’s just all around competently executed in most places. Her voice is passable, the composition is alright, but it just makes the experience even less fun than if it was a total trainwreck.
The mixing in the final is much better because he sounds a lot clearer now. I really like the compositionm here, it balances rock and symphonic parts really well and they enhance each other. On the other hand, I’m not entirely convinced by his vocals. While it sounds clearer, he also sounds a little tired (maybe he overrehearsed?). On the whole, I still like this, though mostly the composition and the orchestra.
Quite a banger, but I really don’t like the child vocals here, they really detract from the song. Also, the lyrics are a little questionable if you look at a translation, but it’s not like other countries haven’t got away with worse before. I really wouldn’t mind this winning as a whole, the composition is really intriguing and engaging, though it would probably get a typical Albania 17th place (which would be a shame).
He definitely improved compared to the semi-final, and I found this fairly enjoyable. I still find the staging to be a little weird with the statue of the letter A in the background, but it would definitely change for ESC. So I really don’t mind it, though I won’t be happy if it wins.
That’s not bad at all, though I don’t find it as good as it was in the semi. I guess this is one of those songs that get a little less interesting the second time through, though that, of course, isn’t a bad thing when it comes to ESC.
I’m even more convinced that this would be the best choice for Albania. It would stand out from everything else and would easily get a Konstrakta sort of reception. The female performer is incredibly charismatic and likeable, so I don’t think people would have trouble connecting with it. On the other hand, I’m still unconvinced by the guy’s spoken word part because I think that it kills the flow of the song a bit.
He’s definitely a good singer, but I can’t say I care too much about the song. It’s just way too typical, and I don’t think he’s a very relatable performer because he keeps closing his eyes, which makes it much harder to relate to him. Still, it’s the kind of entry the viewers can appreciate, and the juries would probably love this since he’s an incredible vocalist, so maybe this wouldn’t be such a terrible choice.
I really don’t like the overreliance on simplistic Spanish lyrics. I’m certain this will also get revamped into English if it goes to Eurovision. It’s also a girlbop, and you all know how I feel about those. I’m really not buying this, and I just think it would get lost among all the other girl bops other countries will inevitably send (sigh). Hopefully, this doesn’t win.
As a song, this is totally fine. It’s a fairly nice pop tune, and there isn’t much to complain about in that department. His voice is quite distinct too, which is totally fine with me. I prefer that to perfectly trained American-sounding vocals (I’m saying that as someone who was trained to sound American while singing during music lessons at school). But I really don’t like his mannerisms while performing, which is a petty complaint, I know, but I just can’t get over them. He keeps making weird faces that I really dislike.
Not bad at all. It sounds fairly radio-friendly, but not in a bad way, and he has a nice, likeable vocal. He performs this very nicely in general - he has a nice stage presence and doesn’t overdo it with dramatics. I also like the backing dancers in white cult robes, though he’d have to cut a dozen of them for Eurovision if he wins. I don’t think I’d mind seeing it at Eurovision.
As I went to sleep after all the songs were performed, I don’t have a lot of thoughts about the interval acts or the voting (sorry, Albania! It was just really getting late). I’m really glad that my favourite won. At the very least, this is already infinitely more favourites than won for me during the last season.
My favourite actually won, hooray!